Rethinking the welfare state :towards an alternative to the American welfare state

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Abstract

The contemporary American welfare state is a highly controversial
institution plagued with tremendous deficiencies. There is agreement over the
entire political spectrum that the current welfare system needs an overhaul,
but there is considerable disagreement on how this should or could be accomplished.
Neither liberal nor conservative reform proposals can be understood
as solutions to the problem because they lack an appropriate analytical
framework.

This thesis tries to contribute to the current welfare debate by
developing an analytical framework by which we can judge welfare policies. It
is based upon contemporary theories of the welfare state and the concept of
equality, by which we can judge welfare policies. This framework will be used
to reveal how and why existing policies fail to achieve the central purpose of
the welfare state and to re-introduce a policy proposal that might be able to
avoid the difficulties that have plagued existing policies.